One of the awards is new this year. The AIS Impact Award recognises the impact of information systems research beyond academia. Prof. Van Heck was one of several academics from universities in the USA and the Netherlands named in the new award.
Two further awards were in personal recognition of his leadership within the Association, and for his contribution to the Association’s resources. He said he was humbled and grateful to receive all three AIS awards.
AI impact award for iFlow
Prof. Van Heck was named, together with co-researchers: Dr. Yixin Lu of the George Washington University; Prof. Alok Gupta of the University of Minnesota; and Huong May Truong and Prof. Wolf Ketter at RSM, on the AIS Impact Award for their contributions to the project AI in the Floriculture Chain. The project explored the potential value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and developed AI applications with value for growers, auctioneers, transporters, and supply chain managers of flower products.
Prof. Van Heck said: “I thank Eline van den Berg of Royal FloraHolland; Arjan van der Voort of Zentoo; and Quoc Viet Nguyen and Behzad Behdani of Wageningen University for the excellent research collaboration, and my RSM colleagues – Policy Director Wilfred Mijnhardt; Senior Assistant Controller Tulsi Rakhan; Dr Marcel van Oosterhout, and Carmen Meesters in the department of Technology and Operations Management – for their excellent support services.”
Award for leadership
The AIS Sandra Slaughter Service Award is a personal award and recognises Eric van Heck’s longstanding membership of AIS, and the leadership he has provided within it. Prof. Van Heck was one of seven recipients of the 2020 award, presented in recognition particularly of participating in the special interest groups, chapters and colleges, strengthening the Association’s conferences, and participating in AIS-sponsored journals.
Award for contribution to AIS resources
Prof. Van Heck was also a recipient of the AIS Technology Challenge Award, together with Prof. Sue Newell, Warwick Business School, and Dr. Nancy Pouloudi, Athens University of Economics and Business. This award is given to those who make significant contributions to the development of AIS resources.
The award winners are recognized in leading the conversion of the ECIS 2020 conference to an online format, and the formation of the AIS Virtual Conference Series (VCS) in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Their efforts were remarkable, said the Association, commenting: “These contributions not only benefited the ECIS 2020 authors, these efforts resulted also in numerous advancements and contributions in the long-term technological vision of the Association moving forward.” The award winners thanked Yanick Kuper, RSM’s Graduate Programme Co-ordinator for Business Information Management for his excellent help in organising the first virtual AIS conference (ECIS2020)
